OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 August 1942, Page 4

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

LOCAL CHURCH HISTORY (To the Editor.) Sir, —The pending farewell to the Knox Church minister, the Rt. Rev. J. Davie, affords .the writer what seems a favourable opportunity to associate therewith a little history of this church, gleaned some quarter of a century ago, when the Jubilee services of its then congregation were widely reported in the local Press and elsewhere. It would appear that, until the long-awaited and welcome arrival of its first clergyman, the Rev. John Ross, on October 28, 1867, its scattered community assemblies, very occasional at that, were held in various secular buildings. Even after their pioneer minister’s arrival, this state of affairs continued until the first small Knox Church was built and opened to public worship on March 25, 1869. Mr Ross only remained some five years in the Wairarapa, but left behind him a trail of pioneer memory still recalled on special occasions such as these. In 1866 the visit of the Rev. W. McGowan, of the Hutt Valley, led to the first partclearing of the present site, which had been in church possession since 1859, when each of the four principal denominational bodies in Masterton were granted valuable corner town-acre sections by the trustee-fathers of our town. The Knox Church site, up to the year 1866, was still a virgin bush domain, until the late Mr James McGregor entered upon it, axe in hand, and felled a small portion clearing sufficient in area to enable the visiting clergyman to deliver a message of courage to his brethren that lonely life amid primitive conditions made doubly cheering news. It was doubtless an unusual pulpit —the stump of a giant forest tree —which served on that sunny Sabbath day. Unusual, too, was the rough-hewn seating accommodation. Following in the devoted footsteps of such pathfinders as these, it is no wonder that all succeeding clergy and flock since then in Knox Church history have never lost their spiritual sway. —I am, etc., N.J.B. Masterton, August 3, 1942.